Eating For Myself, Or Indulging in Simple Pleasures

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: January 1, 2026

Last week, Chris’s dad, a fanatical triathlete, was competing in the bike portion of a competition in Santa Barbara when he got hit by a car. When his mom called, absolutely panic-stricken, we were horrified. Luckily, the doctors determined that he would suffer no lasting damage, but Chris still decided to fly out to help take care of his parents.

I made the most of this unexpected autonomy. For starters, I swept, straightened, rearranged, and scrubbed… what? Are these not enjoyable activities to you people? No? Well, they aren’t to me either, but for some reason, there’s never time to get the chores out of the way when He’s around.

I also spent time with friends and caught up on the phone with ones I hadn’t talked to in awhile. And I went to the gym, multiple times! I also found myself lingering over meals, continuing to read long after I’d finished the physical act of eating. And finally, when it came to choosing what to eat, well, I had no one to think of but myself.

It’s not that I’m normally constrained in what I eat. Most of my meals are prepared for only myself—after all, for the majority of us, work and other obligations dictate our schedules, even when we work at home. But dinner, that’s always a shared affair. And when you’re preparing meals for more than yourself, you really ought to figure in the caloric needs of the other person, especially when that other person is a man (and is almost a foot taller than you). Yes, normally, dinners are a bit heavier than what I ended up making myself last week. And with meat.

Besides the times I ate out, dinners over the week can be broken into two categories, as follows:

Noodles. The ultimate comfort food. I would probably eat noodles every day if I could; the variations are endless.

Spicy noodles with stir-fried green beans

Udon noodles with eggs and tomatoes (For me, eggs and tomatoes is perhaps the ultimate comfort food.)

Burrata. I’d bought a container of burrata right before Chris left—and gleefully consumed all of it on my own. Renditions included:

Pizza with caponata and burrata

Apologies for the splatters and generally unruliness. These photos were taken impatiently, right before I tucked in.

What kinds of foods do you like to make for yourself?

(Breakfast, by the way, nearly always consists of Greek yogurt with granola, a squirt of honey, and whatever fruit I’ve got on hand. Along with a generous mugful of coffee from the French press. I am a total creature of habit.)

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Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

Recipes

Christiana George

Updated Date:
December 17, 2022

Sorry, but I was in a dark place this past week. Dark chocolate place that is. I love, love, love dark chocolate. Whenever I eat a piece of milk chocolate, I always feel like something is missing. Then I eat a piece of rich, flavorful dark chocolate and my taste buds do a happy dance. There is this little deli near the office that I frequent when I need a snack and they carry the best dark chocolate bar with pistachios. It is to die for. I wanted to try to incorporate those flavors into a cookie. I think I got it right.

I was lucky enough to find a bag of shelled pistachios so I didn’t have to sit there and open them up one by one. Of course having that bag in the house is very tempting. Pistachios are just so tasty. I usually only eat a hand full at a time because it takes so long to open the shells, especially the ones that don’t have a crack in them.

For theses cookies, I used the same basic recipe as the Dark Chocolate Cherry M&M Cookies, just changed the chocolate a bit and added pistachios instead of M&M’s.

I baked up one batch and did a taste taste. They were good, but lacking something. So I added a pinch of sea salt to the tops of the second batch before popping them in the oven. Oh boy, that was it. The sea salt really brought the dark chocolate and pistachio flavors together. My taste buds were very happy.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

by The Sweet Chick

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert snack dark chocolate dark chocolate chips cookie American

Ingredients (32 cookies)